New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-22
pUBLISHER AND AUTHOR.
THEIR RELATIONS IN ENGLAND.
Nm oossr ON TILE BUSINESS OF WRITING.

arm GOOSE ON THE BUSINESS OF WRITING.
From he London T'nesf Report @ "s @se''' p" WV '''
Of Authors.
A.. co.s who Was received with cheers said
mat the un satisfactory relations Of author 10 pup
fisher By no means absorbed the Whole attention o.
The socicty Authors. On that occasion hoIhilD
wv.Iu ~. s,.a al .nc piquaht theme VI the wickoi
publisher Ile author hal also W DO oelenueu
against the wicked public and the suplecc Oh en"s
ait moons discourse would be the extent ana mode
In which the pressure on the unsuccessful or nap
successful woman VI letters coau De minnneo
by organnatlOn 1t was useless TO attempt to run
counter TO the natural laws Of economy or TO force
unntercsted readers to buy books against their WILL
Authorship must be looked upon as profession
subject. luxe other professions, to the laws OF supply
and demand. 1t had to be Acknowledged that nlgh
ad no more. they believed that it would be OF scr
vice in continuing TO impress upon BEGINNERS INC en-
treme folly Of trying TO live BY pure nterau ,na al
those and other difficulties they must iIufos aoo;
Every editor in the Anglo-Saxonn world was ue,sea
with manuscript. Thousands OF pens were "oiAlik
away without the slightest reasonable hope .
One OF the first things to be done was TO distlp-
ruish the heIpable from the unhelpablo author In
The eighteenth century the type Of the unhepable
author was samuel Boyse. author Of the "Delty'n
poem which Fielding and Pope praised BOyse s','
tf"r sir weeks i'm bed writing on his knee, with his
arm through hole in the blanket because he had no
shirt and then when his friends made subscription
for him, spent the money on trltcs BEING , en-
fstcnce OF Cod he Immediately married on inc
strength Of the commission. No power could
bcep that sort OF man from starvation ana when ne
nccnrs nowadays he was as unhelpable as he was
hundred years ago. There were men VINO loMee
fishers writing or compiling back-booRs Tor PIT
tsnce which they spent on drink. Such men could
M more be helped than Savage or BOyso could nut
Inv their side there struggling on excellent
fellows whom n little announcement from wise
organization could help to become ornaments OF me
nrofessjon The authors for whom the society iet
the most urgent sympathy were those VINO were we're
canable of making small legitimate success. Inc
men and women whose pronerty needed To ne pro-
tected were those who doing and useful WORK
which was at present appreciated only by n smah
circle 1t was such these whom they dSs,rn 70
guard against pitfalls and to keep ont OF
hands Women especially. who had done ana VINO
sers doing so much that was noble and skItn, ~
Me art OF literature seemed to have one lesson which
they could not learn-that OF helping thense'vcs IN
The business rotations Of life. In their once tnev
held confidential information of the most starting
Il ni""' was '"N they said when they de;
scrjbed the helplessncss Of tho hahsuccessfnl
professiona writer They believed that remedy for
troso conditions 10 be found in an organlzed
society for the protection OF authors. and such
society they desired that theirs should become. For
exactv fifty years tho Societe dos Gems de lIrtres
founded in 1857. had performed similar functions In
paris Vt had defended the intellectual pronertv OF
it, members, had secured for them the lust advan-
tares accrung from their work. had amelioratcd the
position OF tho literary profession and had given TO
isolated and nexrcricnced authors tho advantage OF
organized and instructive advice.